Boards

For me, for better or worse, it's undoubtedly the Manics. The quotes on the sleeve to Generation Terrorists opened me up to a lot of literature I've come to love, and their adoration of Public Enemy pretty much got me into hip-hop. I could go on, but won't for fear of being ridiculed...

-Modest Mouse - Made me realize you don't have to love where you live, and that there was no shame in being from a shitty small town that you hate (I likely owe Isaac Brock my life)
-The White Stripes - Made me realize that the guitar is incredible
-The Postal Service - Made me okay with leaving a place I'd lived all my life
-Death Cab for Cutie - Helped me bond with the first person I ever loved
-The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree is responsible for me coming to terms with the abuse in my own life (I
-Radiohead - Taught me that bands can be fluid and ever changing.

I've written long-form essays on all of these bands (except for White Stripes), and I feel like it's some of the best writing I've ever produced.

First it was the teen-angst, discovering these dirty, heavy but also poppy tracks. Then following Trent since the Fragile in terms of production, side projects (from both TR and collaborators), song writing, soundtracks etc.
Loving NIN opened me up to so much more music: Telefon Tel Aviv, Tweaker, Sonino, Nearly, Clint Mansel, Saul Williams, even bigger acts that lead else where like Perfect circle which lead to Tool etc... The idea that the studio is a tool to make music rather than just capture performance.
Of course I like other bands and could say the same about them (Kid Koala is another of my favs) but I think in terms of my life, own music and projects then yeah, NIN.

Perfect soundtrack to the angsty teen years. Initially got into them as a rock band, mainly being into pretty heavy rock at the time, but they made me realise that there really was a world of fantastic music and sound out there beyond the guitar. Probably responsible for me getting into more electronic music, as well as subtler stuff too. So yeah, the hard rock of With Teeth and Broken was the perfect way to reel me in before exploring the varied depths of the back catalogue.

got into them as a angsty teenager, I did like reading and dabbled in politics but they really made me want to read and think. Came slightly too late though in a way, I had already gone down the IT / science route in school and career ideas so cut out history and suchlike.

As for music, weirdly it would be Green Day. I was basically purely into British Indie around the Britpop era, then heard Dookie and them singing perky songs in American accents just seemed really exciting and interesting compared to the latest Suede record or whatever. From there I swiftly moved onto a whole swathe of pop-punk, then 70s punk, then hardcore, post-hardcore, post-punk and everything that branches off that from Sonic Youth to Fugazi to whatever.

In some parallel universe I never watched 'All The Small Things' on CD:UK and instead pretended to like More Fire Crew with everyone else at school, starting a years-long spiral which ends with me living the life of a Plan B music extra.

who I got in to in '99 at 15, when I responded to the heaviness and atmosphere and it set me down the path of loving rock music. The release of White Pony the next year then obliterated most of the other rock stuff I was just getting in to; it was complex, brooding, pretty and violent all in one and suddenly the straightforward aggression of their contemporaries wasn't enough. I was suddenly open to so much more. Mogwai probably came next, then Godspeed, then myriad other avenues, but if it wasn't for White Pony I don't think I would have 'got' them.

Endless days of sitting round my mates playing Goldeneye/Mario Kart and listening to Hello Rockview, Ixnay and Enema of the State. Less Than Jake are a bunch of metallers, playing ska punk, so that got me into metal and stuff, plus they covered some Slayer songs which is awesome and released a split EP with Megadeth.Also, discovering all the other punk bands they played with/same label expanded my music taste to more bands who sing about trains, cigarettes and getting drunk.

Blink 182 - like DanielKelly said, I'm also a member of the puerile idiot brigade.

Beforehand I used to listen to Fat Boy Slim, The Prodigy and the only Manics album I've ever owned (Everything Must Go). So yeah, pop-punk has a lot to answer for.

Are a popular choice, but with good reason. There seem to be so many kids who got into them through FIFA06 and that really good Premier League highlights video. They were my gateway into the heroin addiction that is being into music.

I probably wouldn't be into music at all if I'd never bought that copy of FIFA.